Gernet, Jacques
Lands and People: Within
Land Forms
- Mountains barricade them from
themselves
- Deserts isolate them from the rest
of the world
Water Forms
- Yellow River (North) & Yangtze
(South)
- South China Sea & West Philippine
Sea
Languages of the Far East
- Diverse within, evolves even more
- More people, more languages
Lands and People: Outside
- Security issues for land and sea borders
- Borders for exchange of illegal
medicine, etc.
Major Ethnic Groups/Main Nationalities
1. Han
- Southeastern China
- Found mainland and outside China
- Largest, oldest group
- Inheritors of the first Golden Age
of China
2. Mongol
- Divided via inner and outer
Mongolia (independent state)
- Minority
- Proud race of Genghis Khan,
Father of Biological Warfare; yay
pants
- Conquered Bubonic Plague
- Barbaric, lived on horses (faster
travel)
3. Tibetans
- Dalai Lama (fierce Buddhists)
- Autonomous, no dynasty
4. Uighurs
- Look non-Chinese; more unknown,
weaker minority that enjoy less
privileges
- Predominantly Muslim so China
one of the top countries with
Muslim surplus
- Also no dynasty
Modes of Life & Culture
- Sedentary people
- Nomadic cattle-raisers
- Mountain people
- Mixed cultures
China vs Europe
- Diversity similar
- Immensity of Chinese population
China vs USA
- US capital: coastal; Chinese capital:
internal
- Chinese Southeastern coast (Hong
Kong, etc.) lead to advance
- US is 40% arable land, China is 10%
- US has 9 cities with more than 1M
people, China has 170
Main Routes of the Eurasian Continent
A. Silk Road (300BC)
- Trade through maritime and caravan
traffic
- Religious: pilgrimages with temples at
stop over by any religion
- Political and military: diplomacy and
warfare
B. Train line
 Maps
Dynastic Cycles The “Bend” of the Yellow River
- Eastern expansion - Seed of Chinese settlement
- Center more important - Constant landmark
- Increases and fragmentation - Not because of fertility but because it
- Only in the latter dynasties did China was easier to control the people
become a large dynasty - Would need a powerful leader

Dynasties
I. Xia Dynasty
- Neolithic age with mythical, historical contexts
- Ruled by the Yellow Emperor who taught them how to be civilized
- Emperors as cultural heroes:
a. Yao – calendar through knowledge of seasonal changes
b. Yu – control flood through canals
c. Shun – dams
- No story of creation; everything already existed
- No intervening supreme being
- Lived beside the bend of the Yellow River where soil was okay but inland more important

II. Shang Dynasty (700 years)

- Environment called for authoritarian rule bc land by Yellow River
was erratic with drought, flood, etc
- Rulers consulted oracle bones
- Large gap of social classes (rulers & slaves)
- Contributions:
a. System of writing
- Shown through the pictograms in the oracle bones
- Exclusive to ruling class
b. Bronze making
- For rituals, cooking, trade, urns, artisan shit
- Contained by nobles
- Implied wealthier merchant class
- Introduced period of warfare (weapons, chariots, etc.) and, consequentially, expansion
c. The wheel
d. Transportation
- Shang Huang-Ti
- Legitimacy through divine power
- Military prowess & rule
- Tomb of Consorts (human sacrifices, treasures, etc.)
III. Zhou Dynasty (800 years)
- Life on bend of the Yellow River like Xia and Shang
- Expansion towards the South because better resources, more
arable lands
- Government has the Mandate of Heaven
- Silk production = expansion = more economic freedom
- From period of disunity to period of turmoil (most significant)
- Long period divided into four:
1. Western Zhou – stable
2. Eastern Zhou – stable
3. Spring & Autumn Period - People got existential crises =
4. Warring States Period 100 schools of thought founded
- When Confucius was born and rituals brought back

IV. Chin/Qin Dynasty (20 years)

- “First Emperor” Chin Shih Huang-Ti
a. first ruler of a “unified China”
b. strategic and feared
c. Legalism as rule of law
d. Elixir of life, Terracota army (immortality)
- First burning of books and scholars in history
- Standardized through mass persecution:
a. Monetary system (currency)
b. Distribution of land and goods - Shortest dynasty because Iron Fist;
c. Weighing systems and what China was named after
measurements - 1st foundation of the Great Wall of
d. Roads and canals (transportation) China built implies:
e. Laws a. Forced labor (wide social gap)
f. Societal views b. Security measures
- System of writing under 2 forms

V. Han Dynasty (400 years)

- First Golden Age of China
- Silk Road
a. Implied connections with Roman empire and others
b. Powerful trade = more ideas, culture, openness, view of life
c. Leisure and entertainment = narrower social gap
- Enter of Buddhism from India; “Kuan Yin” fat lady Buddha
- After expansion, period of disunity (220 – 581)
- Government: b. More decentralized
a. Efficient taxation = economic c. Too geographically big, diffused
growth power from imperial gov’t
VI. Sui Dynasty (40 years)
- Got smaller again
- For dynasty to succeed, similar to Ching: Legalism for unification
- Han mass migration South because more agricultural lands
- Stable taxations
- Sui Yangdi built the Grand Canal
a. Yellow River (North) + Yangtze - End:
(South) river connect revolts of
b. More people = sustenance =
cultivation of agriculture disconnected workers, tired of legalism
c. Maritime advantage
d. Military travels
VII. Tang Dynasty (300 years)
- Cosmopolitan dynasty at Chang’an
- Achievements:
a. Industrial revolution
b. Water clock
c. Printed Buddhist manuscript (paper)
d. Farmer’s manual (religious & practical texts)
e. Agricultural:
- Fast ripening rice from Vietnam
- Heavy iron plows; harnessed oven & water buffaloes
- Extensive irrigation systems
- Equitable field system (agrarian land reform)
- Imperial bureaucratic system
- Opened imperial university
a. Civil service exam
b. Education directly affected by innovations in printing
- Enhanced military technology (catapults & non-contact warfare
- Tributary system and military expansion
- Arts & crafts (porcelain, ceramic, kilns, b. Tea
high-end market) bricks (semi-barter, almost
- Literature currency)
a. Li Po and Tu Fu famous for writing - First female emperor (Wu)
about ordinary life a. Killed relatives to get into power
b. No women who rose to fame b. Commissioned one of the biggest
c. Education and writing more pro- Buddhist shrines
male - Downfall:
- Grid like structure in the city a. An Lu Shang (Saudian)
- Monetary System b. Emperor Xianzong’s 819 anti-
a. Coins, paper money Buddhist decree
c. Short period of disunity
VIII. Sung Dynasty (300 years)
- Had Northern (Kaifeng) and Southern (Hangchou) capital; not as
unified
- Less control of the state gave way to freedom for businesses, etc.
- Qing Ming scroll – shows daily life, transportation
- Efflorescent – bustle of the people powered the economy because
so much freedom
- Civil war again known as Five Kingdoms Period
- Parabolic Bridges
a. Bigger vessels could pass through
b. Another mode of transportation
- Weakest military, open arms for Mongols; defensively moved
South instead of fight them
- Foot binding – bc Empress Wu; for women to know their place
therefore weak female contribution to society
- Movement of the Han people
a. Expanded and southward
b. Mongols and more arable lands
c. Controlled, strategic and lead by the state

IX. Yuan Dynasty

- Capital: Beijing
- Expansion originally started by Genghis Khan
- Grandson Kublai Khan, successful Chinese emperor
a. Policy of tolerance: learned things, accepted norms
b. Sino-Barbarian
c. Employed foreigner spies and advisors
d. Good military strength
- Couldn’t seize Japan; Kamikaze wind; tried twice to no avail
- Marco Polo wrote about the Silk Road
- End: Black Death

X. Ming Dynasty
- Hongwu (fortify the state)
a. Implements authoritarian rule with Confucian ideas
b. Led the rebel group “Red Turban”
c. Iron hand rule, ousted Mongols, good manning of the systems
d. Civil service examinations = the people be part of the
bureaucracy
- Yung Lo
a. Established the tribute systems
b. Employed Eunuchs: castrated men in full service to the
emperor (Zheng He)
c. Show that they repelled their “Mongol” blah and “Middle Kingdom!” and “Tributes!” and
“Everything’s under control!!”
- Cheng Zu, “The Consolidator,” strengthened and extended tributary states towards Asia and SEA
in China’s period of wealth & stability through Admiral Zheng He
- Used economy to build the Forbidden City, Peking
- Map became smaller, similar looking to
Han
- Extension towards the northeast;
coastal areas taken advantage of
- Expeditions stopped because
a. Not Confucian
b. Depleting money
XI. Manchu Dynasty
- Barbarians from the North
- 1st emperor: Dorgon
- Eventual policy of accommodation
- First Western institutionalization
a. Church
b. Small port in Macao/Canton
c. Portugese v proud of themselves
- European countries who tried to engage in trade were seen as
inferior vassals and not countries as powerful as China
- Emperor Kangxi
a. First encyclopedic history of China
b. Burned every other history book
- Misaligned interests: emperor found it
rude that the kings wouldn’t sail and
personally bow down to him (kow tow)
- Western incursion = Opium War
a. Maritime
b. Brits won twice
- Macao was under treaty only for a few
years while Hongkong was under British
rule for longer and even had a British
mayor
- Westerners scrambling for Chinese
goods
- T’ung Chih tried to strengthen arsenal
but nothing happened
- Engaged in war with France, Japan
(Treaty of Shimonoseki) & Russia
- Internal:
a. Taiping Rebellion (10 years)
b. Boxer Rebellion
c. Internal & external disruption
(society, systems, etc.)
- Matteo Ricci: Jesuit who seemed to be
compromising his Christianity by
complying to the emperor; translated
Confucian texts into Latin
- Downfall of Manchu because of intrinsic
thingos of Ming
- Anti-anything foreign
(merchants, evangelists, etc.)
- Ching + Wests fight back
evangelists
- Weakening of stronghold of
dynasty because of foreign
influence
- End: Empress Dowager Cixi
a. Lived luxuriously
b. Built Summer Palace to isolate
herself from all the stress
c. Tried to fight off Boxer Rebels with
foreign alliances but to no avail
d. Put Pu Yi, her nephew in power so
she could control him
- Emperor Pu Yi
a. Lived somewhere or else be killed
b. Died a gardener, last emperor &
symbol of dynasties
- Communists take over

Confucianism
- By Confucius
- Man is perfectible and inherently good
- Hierarchical orders: rationale for
organizing society (just follow your role)
- Strict with rituals, morality, education
and ancestral respect
Taoism
- By Lao Tzu
- Man is innately good
a. therefore man should be allowed to
live by its own nature
b. but binary opposites like Yin and
Yang so good and bad
- Present from the Zhou dynasty onwards
- Nu Wei: let nature take its course
(inaction and passivity)
Buddhism
- Present during the Han dynasty, during
the revival of schools of thought
- Intrusive about how man should
behave, with rules on book
- Has temples, is instructional but is not
institutional
Legalism
- Chin dynasty in response to how things were supposed to be run (Chin Chi Huang-Ti)
- Burned books of the Zhou dynasty
- 2 handles: rewards and punishments
Three Formulas for Dynastic Stability
1. Fiscal stability – heavy taxes, corruption
2. Administrative efficiency – mandate of heaven
3. Military control
Philosophies
- Start of silk production: made by
women, trade = economic expanse
- Present from the Zhou dynasty onwards
- Believes in a morally exemplary leader
- Is institutional, with Schools of Thought
- Less of a religion, more of teachings &
learnings
- Less of a religion, more of a way of life
- Has temples, is instructional but is not
institutional
- Does not believe in a form of
government, laissez-faire, society
should be left free
- Focus on society and conduct
- Does not believe in afterlife
- Focus on inner self and spirituality
- Split into 2 strands
1. Mahayana – spread good/social
2. Theravada (?) – hermit/seclusion
- Believes in the afterlife; reincarnation
through karma